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Aimed at early years practitioners and childminders this tool kit provides a range of resources that help to understand, reinforce and enable good practice in supporting children’s speech, language and communication.

This book is aimed at anyone providing a service to children under five and their families such as local authorities, children’s centres and children’s groups. It ensures best practice in supporting young children’s speech, language and communication development by helping practitioners to reflect on their practice and to measure outcomes.

This invaluable book provides detailed advice and activities to promote the communication skills of all school age children. It develops ideas suitable for children at primary school. It has been written to be accessible to parents, learning support assistants and teachers and many speech and language therapists use it in their daily work. It is the core reading material for the accredited course Speech and language support for 5-11s.
It addresses many areas including:
Attention and listening
Helping school age children understand spoken language and develop verbal reasoning skills
Helping school age children develop their expressive language
Phonological processing activities
Developing vocabulary and story writing and use of mind maps
Helping school age children develop their social skills
Helping school age children with unclear speech
As with all Elklan materials having purchased the book you are free to photocopy any relevant pages so equipping others who work within your school or health provision.

This invaluable book provides detailed advice and activities to promote communication skills of secondary school aged children
Secondary Language Builders provides detailed advice and activities to encourage the communication skills of 11-16 year olds. It has been written to be accessible to teachers, teaching assistants and parents and, with help, the students themselves.
Many aspects of communication are covered including:
Understanding memory and learning
Using visual strategies and considering independent learning
Helping students to understand spoken language
Using strategies to improve vocabulary learning
Using strategies to improve sentence structure and grammar
Finding ideas to structure written work
Supporting preparation for tests and exams
Coping with social communication and social situations
Understanding what is involved in speaking clearly and helping students with their speech.
The book is illustrated.
Secondary Language Builders forms the core reading material for the accredited course ‘Speech and Language Support for 11-16s’.
As with all Elklan materials having purchased the book you are free to photocopy any relevant pages so equipping others who work within your school or health provision.

This invaluable and practical book provides detailed advice and activities to promote the speaking and listening skills of all children aged between 2 and 6 years. It has been widely used across thousands of settings and enables professionals and parents to understand the communication difficulties children experience. It gives relevant advice and is full of lots of ideas to support children with a wide range of speech and language difficulties
Amongst the topics covered are:
Developing play for language
Encouraging appropriate adult-child interaction
The development of attention levels
Helping children develop their understanding of language andverbal reasoning
Developing social skills through play
Helping pre-school children with autistic spectrum disorder
Helping children develop phonological awareness
Helping children with unclear speech

This new and practical book provides detailed advice and activities to promote the speaking and listening of babies and young children. It has been carefully written to tie in with the EYFS and the two year review. It is full of information about communication development, typical developmental milestones, observation schedules to support your assessment, planning and monitoring of children’s progress and simple, fun ideas which are easy to implement in everyday situations.
Amongst the topics covered are:
What is communication?
Encouraging appropriate adult-child interaction
Developing play for language
Provide child friendly environments to support attention and listening
Helping children develop their understanding of language and verbal reasoning
Encouraging children to talk and adults to listen!
Sharing books, using rhymes to develop language and early literacy
Working with parents.

This excellent resource makes this complex area of language development accessible to non-specialist staff. fAll those working in the field will appreciate the clear explanations and practical support and advice for those working and living with children at the pre-intentional and intentional stages of communication as far as beginning to use first words. The book explores a wide range of issues concerning children who have little or no means of expressing themselves verbally.
Language Builders for Complex Needs provides ideas for assessment and recording progress as well as detailed advice and practical activities. It is written for speech and language therapists, teachers, teaching assistants, pre-school practitioners and parents.
The book examines the characteristic communication skills, the interaction required and the thinking and play skills that need nurturing at each of the following stages:
Pre-Intentional Communication.
Being able to anticipate events.
Intentional Communication.
It also considers:
The link between play and language.
Total Communication – signs, symbols, Communication Passports, and briefly, Augmentative and Alternative Communication.
Using first words, ideas and phrases.

This invaluable book provides information about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and gives detailed advice and activities to promote the communication and interaction skills of all verbal children with ASD.
It covers a wealth of knowledge and is beautifully illustrated to provide many practical strategies and ideas suitable for children at primary school as well as those in specialist provisions. It has been written to be accessible to parents, learning support assistants, teachers and other professionals who work in this field. It is the training material for those completing the Elklan ASD specilaist course but is also a stand alone publication and is useful for all practitioners.
Amongst the topics covered are:
What is autism?
Using structure with children with ASD.
Developing communication.
Working with Information Carrying Words to develop the length of sentences a child can understand.
Developing verbal reasoning in children with ASD.
Using vocabulary maps and Mind Maps, the latter devised by Tony Buzan.
Developing interaction through using Comic Strip
Conversations as devised by Carol Gray.
Helping children learn how to speak in a social context.
Understanding that children with ASD often communicate most effectively through their behaviour.
As with all Elklan materials having purchased the book you are free to photocopy any relevant pages so equipping others who work within your school or health provision.

Communication Builders for AAC provides comprehensive information about the assessment and use of the whole range of AAC options. Andrea Kirton, co-author, is a highly specialist speech and language therapist but she writes this book in a style which makes this important information accessible to education practitioners, parents, carers, SLTs. It is the core reading material for the accredited course Supporting Adults and Children using AAC.
It’s a one-stop-shop to AAC!
Contents:
Chapter 1: What is AAC (Alternative and Augmentative Communication)?
Why use AAC?
What Does AAC Include?
Access Methods
The AAC Team
Chapter 2: Assessment
Who might benefit from AAC?
Cause and effect skills
Social Communication Skills
Symbolic Understanding
Understanding of Spoken Language
The expressive-receptive gap
Visual SkillsAccess Method
Tools for Assessment
AAC Profile and Action Plan
Definition of Communicative Competence for AAC users (Janice Light, 1989)
Social Networks (Sarah Blackstone and Mary Hunt Berg, 2003)
Means, Reasons and Opportunities (Della Money and Sue Thurman, 1994)
Chapter 3: Unaided Communication
What is Unaided Communication?
Assessing Unaided Methods of Communication
Observation Schedule for assessing Unaided Communication Methods
Developing Unaided Communication Skills
Chapter 4: Low Tech Communication Aids
Types of Low Tech AAC systems
Aspects of Assessment for Low Tech AAC
Access
Vocabulary/Language
Social Use
Design Issues
The Next Step – Activities to support and develop use of the Low Tech AAC system
Cause and effect with people (Communicative Intent)
Requesting item/indicating choice
Participation in a social activity
General Conversation
Chapter 5: High Tech Communication aids
Types of High Tech Communication Systems
Assessment for a High Tech System
Access
Vocabulary/Language
Social Use
Design Issues
The Next Step - Activities to support and develop use of the High Tech AAC system
Linguistic Skills
Social Skills

This resource provides detailed advice and practical activities to support the communication skills of children with any degree of hearing loss ranging from mild to severe. Language Builders for Hearing Difficulties is relevant to many speech and language therapists, learning support assistants and teachers who work in pre-schools, schools or units and parents and carers who are helping their child at home.
It is the core reading material for the specialist accredited course 'Supporting Children with Hearing Difficulties'. It addresses many areas, including:
Types of hearing loss.
Things to look out for if you are concerned about a hearing loss.
Hearing assessment.
The impact hearing difficulties can have on communication.
Changing the interaction and environment to support the child.
Supporting language and social skills.
Supporting listening and phonological development.

Language Builders for Pupils with SLD (Severe Learning Difficulties) book provides detailed advice and activities to promote the communication skills of children and young people (5-25yrs) who are able to verbally understand and express their basic needs and ideas but who are really struggling to learn and cope in education settings. It has been written to be accessible to parents, learning support assistants and teachers and many speech and language therapists use it in their daily work. It is the core reading material for the accredited course Speech and Language Support for Pupils with SLD.
It addresses many areas including:
What is communication?
Using positive adult-pupil interaction to promote communication
Supporting effective vattention and listening
Helping pupils who have learning difficulties to understand spoken language and develop verbal reasoning skills
Using Total Communication as a core approach to communication
Promoting vocabulary development
Develop expressive language and narrative skills
Learning how to identify and support pupils’ social communication skills

Language Builders for Vulnerable Young People has been written to be accessible to speech and language therapists, social workers, teachers, support staff, parents and those working in the youth justice sector.
Forwarded by Juliet Gregory, Specialist SLT in the field.
Areas covered include:
Why is knowledge about speech, language and communication important when working with vulnerable young people?
Communication basics – non-verbal communication listening and attention
Understanding spoken language
Developing verbal reasoning
Exploring the use of non-literal and ambiguous language
Facilitating vocabulary learning
Encouraging expressive language and communication
Promoting social skills and emotional literacy

Language Builders for Post 16s provides clear practical advice and activities to promote the communication skills of 16-25 year olds, and has been written to be accessible to speech and language therapists, learning support assistants, teachers and parents.
Areas covered include:
Considering the skills involved in communication
Improving listening and concentration skills
Developing strategies to help students understand spoken language and improve their verbal reasoning skills
Exploring the use of non-literal and ambiguous language
Facilitating vocabulary learning
Encouraging expressive language skills
Promoting social skills and emotional literacy
Considering the use of communication in the workplace

Early Years Based Information Carrying Word Pack is a rich resource of beautiful pictures and interesting activities to promote the vocabulary, speaking and listening of a wide range of children through the principle of Information Carrying Words.
For those unfamiliar with Information Carrying Words, the concept provides a structured framework which helps children increase the amount of information they can remember. At the same time EYBIC will develop their knowledge and language of everyday topics including:
Ourselves
Food
Clothing
Toys
Animals
Home
The resource includes:
Careful explanations about Information Carrying Words and how to use the resource
Illustrations to print in black and white or colour
Home Activities
Vocabulary checklists to monitor progress
A two and a half hour training session for parents and early years practitioners, which includes teaching notes, a PowerPoint presentation and handouts.
EYBIC Word Pack will help to improve:
Understanding of spoken language
Listening and attention
Auditory sequential memory
Vocabulary development
Expressive language
Social communication skills
EYBIC Word Pack supports Early Learning Goals.
EYBIC Word Pack is very useful for children learning additional languages.
EYBIC Word Pack helps parents, early years practitioners and speech and language therapists to work together to promote children’s language and communication skills.

This NEW resource from Elklan provides an exciting range of activities to embed vocabulary and language learning in the curriculum
Taking the key principles taught in the Elklan course Speech and Language Support for Under 5s this complementary resource provides teachers and assistants with the materials required to practically take these strategies and apply them in their classroom and outside with the whole class or in small groups. Using these activities will help to develop the communication skills of all children but especially those with speech and language difficulties.
Includes a CD-ROM of pictures supporting the resource.